Game of Thrones: "The Prince of Winterfell" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"I will hurt you for this. A day will come when you think you're safe and happy and your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth. And you'll know the debt is paid."

Somehow, I felt as thought we were bound to get an episode like "The Prince of Winterfell" before we headed into the endgame of Season 2. An episode that wasn't bad (this is Game of Thrones after all) but an one that had a lot of moving parts and exposition. And while there's nothing wrong with exposition or dialogue-heavy scenes, this chapter felt like it had a lot of stories that simply began and didn't finish. And I mean actual "episodic stories." Because besides Robb finally forsaking his vow and getting busy with Talisa, and Tyrion's tense scene with Cersei when he thought she might have been holding Shae as a prisoner, everything else felt a bit incomplete.

Even Arya's story, and great scene with Jaqen where he finally lost his smile after she threatened him with his own name, felt too much like a fragment. And yes, I will definitely mourn the loss of Arya and Tywin as a scene-stealing duo. They didn't even get any final words with one another before he impulsively rode out to meet Robb in battle. And even though Tywin clearly likes her, one would think that he'd think of a better fate than leaving her behind with The Mountain. Tywin should know that the odds of her surviving that servitude would be extremely low.

Sure, there were some great moments to be had here; a furious Robb placing Cat under arrest for treason, Tyrion and Bronn quibbling away like an old married couple while trying to come up with a way to defend King's Landing, Yara proudly pleading with Teon to abandon Winterfell ("Don't die so far from the sea"). But there was also a lot of stuff that teased us and gave us no resolution; Jaime and Brienne setting out on a boat, Qhorin wanting Jon to go undercover in Mance Rayder's camp, Sam and Grenn discovering a stash of dragon glass, and that one scene toward the end with Dany and Jorah. So unlike the great, extended sequences of "The Old Gods and the New" and the tremendous one-on-ones from "A Man Without Honor," this episode hopped around a bit too much. Save for Sansa and Melisandre, I think it touched on every single character's story.

Last week, I found that a lot of you who hadn't read the books were able to predict that those two burned corpses were not Bran and Rickon. Just the fact that the murderous act happened off screen was enough to tip some of you off, while others noticed the few mentions here and there of the two orphans that Bran sent to the farm. So I'm not sure how much of a revelation it was to most of you to find out that Bran and Rickon are alive and kicking (well, Rickon's kicking at least). I think, possibly, the bigger surprise here was that Osha had doubled back with them and that they're now sort of hiding right under Theon's nose, in Winterfell. And then there's Theon himself. Still trying to do the respectful thing by offering gold to the farmer only to find out that Dagmar already killed off all the witnesses. Way too little. Way too late.

And so Lord Bolton's bastard is just a few days out from Winterfell and Stannis is a few days out from King's Landing. Which just made this episode feel like a grand set-up for bigger things to come. A bridge episode. And I suppose a lot of your personal enjoyment of it will depend on how invested you are in Robb and Talisa. And Tyrion and Shae for that matter. Again, Shae's portrayed as such a tough, argumentative nut on this show, it's been hard to determine how much Tyrion actually cares for her. But here, after he discovered that Cersei had nabbed the wrong whore, he opened up to Shae, confessing his love. Perhaps it was even the first time Tyrion himself realized he loved Shae. "I would kill for you, do you know that? And I expect I'll have to before this is over."

And poor Ros. Not having the greatest time in King's Landing, is she? The scene between Cersei and Tyrion was, of course, great; with Tyrion having to try and hide the fact that she'd hurt someone he actually cared for. But the best part of the whole thing was how well it all played considering the fact that Tyrion and Cersei sort of bonded in the last episode. But with Cersei now thinking that Tyrion purposefully wants to Joffrey to die in battle, her claws came out once again. And we got to hear Tyrion deliver one of the best, threatening lines of the entire series.

And while "The Prince of Winterfell" might not have been this series' best outing, we did get to:  Meet a dude named the "Lord of Bones" who wore a freakin' awesome skull on his face, hear the tale of how Davos saved Stannis from starving at Storm's End during Robert's Rebellion and see Tyrion use the word "pigs***" as a secret code for wild fire. Now, I know that a lot of you who've read the books have some gripes over certain characters being left out of Season 2, but please don't fill up the boards with the names of people who show up on the series. If you didn't get the chance to read my pre-Season 2 interview with Thrones producer David Benioff, he basically said that, after Season 1, they're no longer doing straight book-to-season adaptations. So things that happen in Clash of Kings might show up in Season 3 while things that happen in Storm of Swords might be moved up and show up in Season 2. They're now more interested in adapting the "saga" itself.

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/21/game-of-thrones-the-prince-of-winterfell-review